Foreign Donations Of $122,400 Are Returned By Gop

Democrats Say It's A Problem For Both Parties

WASHINGTON — The Republican Party on Thursday returned $122,400 in contributions that originated in Hong Kong, spurring Democrats to declare that foreign political donations are a bipartisan problem.

Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson issued a statement saying the committee did not realize the money came from overseas.

"Upon learning those facts, we immediately returned the contributions, before the day's end," he said.

An investigation by RNC lawyers verified a Time magazine report saying the four contributions, which came between 1991 and 1993, were made by a U.S. corporation that was controlled from Hong Kong.

The GOP said it believes the company, Young Brothers Development USA of Florida, was run by Americans of Asian descent. But Time indicated the company was a shell corporation without enough money earned in the U.S. to legally donate to political campaigns.

Among the returned contributions was $10,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and $10,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arms of the Senate and House GOP.

The Young Brothers' parent company is controlled by Hong Kong magnate Ambrous Tung Young.

Young Brothers also guaranteed a $2.2 million loan in 1994 to the National Policy Forum, a GOP-affiliated non-profit think tank founded by then-RNC Chairman Haley Barbour. The loan allowed the Forum to repay loans from the RNC in time for the party to use the money in a last-minute advertising push for Republicans in the 1994 elections.

That year, the GOP won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

Until now, Democrats essentially have stood alone in the scandal over improper and foreign donations to American campaigns. The Democratic National Committee has committed itself to returning $3 million in questionable donations.

Nicholson said the Democrats' problems are much more serious than those of the RNC.

"Not only did the Democrats engage in an orchestrated effort to solicit illegal contributions from foreign individuals and foreign sources, they went so far as to send their own fundraisers overseas to get the money," he said.

The DNC fired back with a challenge to the RNC to return the $2.2 million made available to the Republicans in 1994 by the Young Brothers loan guarantee.

"For months, the Republicans have piously proclaimed their purity on campaign finances," DNC General Chairman Roy Romer said in a statement. "But the truth is now out: They have deliberately concealed receipt of foreign contributions."

Republican officials, however, noted that foreign donations to non-profit foundations such as the National Policy Forum are not illegal. Only foreign contributions to political campaigns are prohibited.

In the Senate, meanwhile, the GOP chairman of the committee investigating 1996 campaign finance abuses is sparring with his Democratic counterpart over the extent to which the National Policy Forum should be investigated.

Senate Governmental Affairs chairman Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) wrote the Democratic ranking member of the committee, Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), that half of the 12 subpoenas the Democrats would like to issue concerning the forum are "overly broad and often intrusive."

But Thompson said that he would approve Democratic subpoenas issued to the U.S. and Hong Kong branches of Young Brothers Development and the company's head, Ambrous Tung Young.

Thompson also said he would approve subpoenas directed at Benton Becker and Richard Richards, listed in Florida incorporation records as the only two officers of Young Brothers USA. Richards is a former chairman of the RNC, and Becker was counsel to Gerald Ford when he was president.

A spokesman for Glenn said Democrats would continue to negotiate with Thompson over the other six subpoenas.

Foreign donations, Glenn said, are "a problem for both political parties and we have to look into it . . ."